Support means for a conductor rail



April 8,1969 J. L. HARMSEN A 3,437,765

SUPPORT MEANS FOR A CONDUCTOR RAIL I Filed April 13, 1967 1 IA\'VE \I()R. JOHAN L. HARMSEN Agent United States Patent 3,437,765 SUPPORT MEANS FOR A CONDUCTOR RAIL Johan L. Harmsen, 68 Hawkridge Ave., Markham, Ontario, Canada Filed Apr. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 630,742 Int. Cl. B60m 1/30 US. Cl. 191-32 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A support member for a railway conductor rail made of electrical insulating material that is secured to a railway tie on a top surface and on an adjacent end surface. The railway tie is electrically insulated from the conductor rail.

The present invention relates to support members for supporting the conductor rail of a railroad track.

Heretofore such conductor rails, or third rails, have been supported by means of insulators which are secured on extensions of the rail ties. In one known method, some of the standard rail ties are replaced by ties of a greater length and the insulating supports are secured on the ends of such longer ties. In another known system, tie extensions are secured to the ends of the standard rail ties and the conductor rail insulating supports are then secured to the upper surfaces of such extensions. In the latter case, the tie extensions have been constructed from concrete or wood.

Both these previously known methods for supporting conductor rails suffer from the disadvantages that they frequently involve the use of relatively fragile ceramic or pottery insulating supports and that they are relatively difiicult to install since they must first be secured to the rail tie and the insulating support must then be secured to the tie extension.

It is an object of the invention to provide a support member for a conductor rail of a railroad track, which support member is of simple and rugged construction and can be installed in a simple manner.

These and other objects of the invention are achieved in accordance with the invention by the use of a support member having a rail-receiving recess in which a conductor rail for a railroad track may be disposed and supported, a generally vertical first surface adapted to be secured to the generally vertical end surface of a rail tie and a downwardly directed second surface adapted to be secured to the upper surface of the rail tie in proximity to its end surface, said first and second surfaces being electrically insulated from said rail-receiving recess.

By constructing such support members from an electrically insulating material, for example a thermosetting resin such as a fibre-reinforced polyester resin, they may be formed as a single unit, for instance by moulding techniques. The aforementioned first and second surfaces of the support members of the invention may be formed so that they can be adhesively bonded to a rail tie or they may have apertures such as holes formed therein so that they can be fastened to a rail tie by securing means such as screws or bolts or the like. It has proved particularly effective to provide such holes through the downwardly directed surface so that the support member can be bolted at the upper surface of a rail tie and to bond the generally vertical surface of the support member to the end surface of the rail tie.

If desired, the support member may additionally comprise recesses in which supports for a rail guard may be disposed.

The support members of the present invention may be formed with any convenient configuration sufficient to 3,437,765 Patented Apr. 8, 1969 provide adequate structural strength and insulation for the conductor rail. In one particularly useful embodiment, the support member comprises a generally vertical member of an electrically non-conductive material terminating at its upper end in the rail-receiving recess and being provided integrally therewith at its end remote from the railreceiving recess with the generally vertical first surface and the downwardly directed second surface.

The invention will now be described by way of illustration with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a support member in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plane view of a support member in accordance with the invention shown secured to the end of a conventional rail tie; and

FIGURE 3 is a plane view showing an adaption to the vertical member and rail-receiving recess of the novel support member for holding conductor rails of a 3 phase power supply.

The support member generally indicated at 2 in the accompanying drawings is moulded from a glass fibrereinforced polyester resin and comprises a generally vertical web member 4 terminating at its upper end in a conductor rail-receiving recess 6, shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, defined by a generally horizontal surface 8 and two vertical side walls 10 and '11 to house the lower part of a conductor rail 13.

At its end remote from the rail-receiving recess 6, the support member 2 is provided with a generally vertical surface 12 adapted to be bonded adhesively to the generally vertical end surface 14 of a rail tie 16 having one or more track rails 18 secured thereon in any conventional manner.

The support member 2 is also provided with an integral generally horizontal flange member 20 having a generally downwardly directed surface 22 which is secured to the upper surface 24 of the rail tie 16, for instance, by means of nuts 26 and bolts 28 passing through apertures provided for such a purpose in flange members 20. As shown, web member 4 and flange member 20 are inclined obliquely from surfaces 12 and 22 such that conductor rail 13 is retained beyond end surface 14 of rail tie 16. A protective cap 38 of insulating material may be used to cover each nut 26 and bolt 28 to prevent a possibility of a short circuit between the metal rail 13 and the metal bolt 28.

In order to provide increased structural strength to the support member 2, flange member 20 is extended as at 30 to the rail-receiving recess 6. Further integral reinforcing flanges 32 and 34 may also be provided, if desired, beneath and above the rail-receiving recess 6. A protective rail 36 may be attached by any suitable securing means to the support member 2 '(as shown in ghost lines), if desired.

FIGURE 3 shows an adaption to the vertical member 4 of FIGURES 1 and 2 wherein three conductor rails 40, 42 and 44 can be used to carry three phase alternating current power to be used by the trains. A vertical member 4a is shown having three cantilever arms 41, 43 and 45 ver- .tically spaced apart to permit the three conductor rails 40, 42 and 44 to be supported thereon.

It will be appreciated that the supporting members of the present invention need not be constructed with the configuration actually shown in the drawings. All that is essential in accordance with the invention is that the support members have a conductor rail-receiving recess and at their ends remote from such recesses they have downwardly directed surfaces such as surface 22 and generally vertical surfaces such as surface 12 for securing them effectively to the upper surfaces and to the generally vertical end surfaces respectively of rail ties.

The configuration illustrated has, however, proved particularly useful both with respect to the ease with which it can be formed by moulding and with respect to its structural ruggedness and adequate electrical insulating performance.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A support member for supporting a conductor rail and adapted to be secured to end and upper surfaces of a horizontally disposed rail tie including a web member; a flange member integral with said web member; a first rail tie abutting surface formed at one end of said web member and adapted to abut the end surface of said rail tie; a second rail tie abut-ting surface formed at one end of said flange member and adapted to abut the upper surface of said rail tie, said first and second surfaces being disposed normal to one another; means for securing at least one of said first and second surfaces to said end and upper surfaces respectively of said rail tie; and a conductor rail receiving element having spaced apart side walls defining a recess, said element being formed at the end of said web and flange member remote from said first and second surfaces and being adapted to receive and retain said conductor rail therein, said web and flange member being inclined obliquely from said first and second surfaces such that said conductor rail is retained beyond the end of said tie rail.

2. A support member as claimed in claim 1 which is formed from an electrically non-conductive material.

3. A support member as claimed in claim 2 in which at least one of said first and second surfaces is bonded adhesively to said rail tie.

4. A support member as claimed in claim 3 which is molded from a thermosetting resin.

5. A support member as claimed in claim 4 in which said thermosetting resin is a fibre-reinforced polyester resin.

6 A support member as claimed in claim 5 in which at least one of said first and second surfaces has formed therein one or more apertures for receiving securing members for fastening said support member to a rail tie.

7. A support member as claimed in claim 1 wherein a reinforcing flange is secured to said flange member on a side thereof opposite to which said web member is disposed.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 606,830 7/ 1898 Willard 191- 32 664,470 12/ 1900 Courtenay 19132 1,404,220 7/ 1914 Potter 191-32 ARTHUR L. LA 'POI'NT, Primary Examiner.

D. F. WORTH III, Assistant Examiner. 

